1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates in general to baby feeding tables and more particularly to an improved, economical and more versatile support arrangement for a baby feeding table or a high chair.
2. Summary of the Prior Art
Baby feeding tables have a chair or seat foldably suspended from the center of the table top and are usually provided with leg adjustment apparatus to permit the table top to be raised or lowered as suits the baby's mother. Raising the table top generally enables the mother to more conveniently feed the child and this position is commonly known as the feeding position. Lowering the table top places the child closer to the floor during play periods, when the child may be unsupervised, to minimize the possibility of injury if the child should crawl over an edge of the table. The latter position of the table is commonly known as the play position.
The leg adjustment apparatus for raising or lowering the table height incorporates telescoping tubular leg sections in vertically extending legs. The telescoping leg sections include a spring biased pin on one leg section, which engages in any one of a plurality of spaced holes in the other or mating section. As may be appreciated this arrangement is extremely difficult to adjust since each pin must be individually disengaged from one hole and readjusted or aligned with another hole when height changes are desired. Each leg must therefore be individually adjusted while the major weight on the legs is usually relieved by removing the child from the chair and/or usually tipping the table towards each side in sequence. This is of course a cumbersome and undesirable arrangement.
In addition the provision of numerous holes in the tubular leg sections and the overlapping tubing lengths required for a satisfactory range of height adjustment is relatively expensive. Further expensive bracing must be provided for the legs since they are usually also required to be folded against the table top for either shipment or storage.
A mechanism for raising and lowering a table while it is erect is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 2,471,564. That mechanism however is connected to the table top adjacent the center of the top and does not either accommodate a suspended center chair or provide the stability and distribution of forces required of a baby feeding table.
In addition the legs used in the just mentioned mechanism engage the floor in a direction extending from the table center toward a respective table corner. In order to provide this configuration the legs must be bent at different angles relative their pivot holes and the bottom length of leg engaged with the floor subjects the leg to a large bending moment and prevents the use of a caster on the leg for facile movement of the table from place to place.